I thought I'd report back on my two weeks with the 17" Core i7 MacBook Pro.
-The Crucial M225 256GB SSD is fantastic. Mature, dependable firmware with garbage collection, and speeds that pretty much max out what SATA II can offer. It was easy to burn an image of the v1916 firmware and run the update from the superdrive by following the instructions provided by Crucial.
-With the SSD in, the only thing that's audible during operation is the NVidia GeForce 330M GPU, and you can tell when it's working hard because it emits a crackling noise with a bit of intermittent high-pitched fan. Battery life is notably affected when it's working.
-GPUInfoMenu v1.5.2 (just made available) is a required download. It allows you to easily shut off the GPU when on battery, because it's really not necessary for most tasks. For example, the GPU fires up needlessly anytime you browse to a site with Flash content using Google Chrome. With bluetooth off, a reasonably dim brightness level, and intel graphics, you can easily get over 8hrs of battery life with heavy use.
-If parallels is provided enough RAM to work with, and Windows 7 uses an easy-to-draw solid background and "classic"/non-aero styling, then the guest OS works at a speed that feels very close to native. Windows apps in "coherence" mode feel like real peers to mac apps. Turning the GPU off does not seem to affect this, but if parallels is given access to the GPU it forces it to work pretty hard somehow.
I love this notebook, and have found that I need the large screen size to get any sort of work done that requires multiple apps. Reboot is somewhere around 17s (for windows and os x), and wake-up is less than a second.
The extra weight is no problem if you get a supportive, comfortable bag. The Incase bag (http://store.apple.com/us/product/TW219ZM/A) is really great.
-The Crucial M225 256GB SSD is fantastic. Mature, dependable firmware with garbage collection, and speeds that pretty much max out what SATA II can offer. It was easy to burn an image of the v1916 firmware and run the update from the superdrive by following the instructions provided by Crucial.
-With the SSD in, the only thing that's audible during operation is the NVidia GeForce 330M GPU, and you can tell when it's working hard because it emits a crackling noise with a bit of intermittent high-pitched fan. Battery life is notably affected when it's working.
-GPUInfoMenu v1.5.2 (just made available) is a required download. It allows you to easily shut off the GPU when on battery, because it's really not necessary for most tasks. For example, the GPU fires up needlessly anytime you browse to a site with Flash content using Google Chrome. With bluetooth off, a reasonably dim brightness level, and intel graphics, you can easily get over 8hrs of battery life with heavy use.
-If parallels is provided enough RAM to work with, and Windows 7 uses an easy-to-draw solid background and "classic"/non-aero styling, then the guest OS works at a speed that feels very close to native. Windows apps in "coherence" mode feel like real peers to mac apps. Turning the GPU off does not seem to affect this, but if parallels is given access to the GPU it forces it to work pretty hard somehow.
I love this notebook, and have found that I need the large screen size to get any sort of work done that requires multiple apps. Reboot is somewhere around 17s (for windows and os x), and wake-up is less than a second.
The extra weight is no problem if you get a supportive, comfortable bag. The Incase bag (http://store.apple.com/us/product/TW219ZM/A) is really great.
